Reaching Out

Good morning sisters,

I hope you have had a chance to study and reflect today. The stories of the sons of Mosiah are just awesome(especially if you have primary kids because what youngster doesn't get excited about Ammon chopping off arms?)

There are so many lessons to learn from these chapters in the Book of Mormon. Two of my favorite are these - we can do hard things when we have the Lord with us; and We can do nothing unless we do it with love and charity.

These young men went in to a land of bloodthirsty people who hated them because of their race/heritage. They knew they could be killed onsite but they believed the Lord would protect them as they served Him. They were not great missionaries because they were born natural speakers or leaders. They became great as they trusted and moved forward in faith. As they made the effort, the Lord guided and made them into the men He wanted them to be.

It works exactly the same with us. We are expected to do hard things, things we feel unprepared for. When we step into the dark, the Lord brings His light and makes us capable and we are strengthened and we become more than we can be without Him. This I testify of wholeheartedly.

Do not shy away from challenges.

When the sons of Mosiah went into the land of the Lamanites, they were instructed to go forth with compassion, patience and long-suffering. They did not go there to reprimand or argue. They went as servants. They humbled them selves and showed respect and love for those they taught.

Charity is the pure love of Christ. It is not just doing things for someone. It is serving with love and compassion and sincere concern for their well-being. We are His hands. They are His children. There is no good excuse for failing to make an effort.

We can become more than we are by doing, serving and trusting in our Savior. The atonement provides this.

Yes, I am going to make this about ministering. I hear people complain about ministering but I will not stop talking about it because it is my primary responsibility and it is the primary way you will come to understand your purpose and build a stronger relationship with the Savior. I never understood this before I received this calling. It is a majorly important work. It is really the main work we, as sisters, have to perform. I cannot minister effectively to all the 400 or so sisters in our ward without you. I need you to help.

Please reach out to the sisters you have a stewardship over. Find them and keep an eye on them and let them know God loves them. Then report back and let us know how they are and what they need.

Love, respect and faith to trust the Lord as you do hard things in His name will bring blessings to your efforts in all you do.

I love you and the Lord loves you. I hope to see you soon.

Thought for a Day

It seems not so long ago that most of us understood that we could disagree with a person and still be friends and have respect for them. Today the message pushed by social media, politics and the agenda of the world seems to be, “No, I am right. You are wrong. If you don’t agree with me, you are a bad person and I can not associate with you.” This message has created so much animosity and ugliness. The desire to be right and prove others wrong is destructive. As daughters of God and sisters in Zion, we must be aware and not allow this spirit of contention to permeate our lives, our homes and our communities.

I believe that we all are doing our best to be who we believe God wants us to be. We are individuals with strengths and weaknesses that make each of us different and we each face a very specific journey that no one else can truly understand. As we deal with one another, we should remember this. We are not perfect. None of us are. If we wish for the Savior’s grace to redeem us, we must try to extend grace to others.

Many of you know that I am sometimes called, “Pumpkin.” That is because I used to use that name for a little girl who is very special to me. When she learned to talk, she called me “Pumpkin”. I love the little people in my life and am honored to be Pumpkin. There was a time, however, when I struggled to connect with children who were not mine. I used to babysit for a child and I wanted to love her but for various reasons it was not happening. I prayed about it and one day the thought came to me that “This is God’s child.” I realized that He valued her beyond measure and He expected me to do the same. It really changed my heart. I suddenly could not look at her without realizing how precious she was and I don’t think I have struggled to love another’s child since. This was a gift to me - to realize that I must try to see others through God’s eyes.

He loves each one of us and sees great value in who we are and in who we may become. I do not believe that He compares us and loves one more than another. He knows us as individuals with weaknesses and strengths and fears and anxieties. He loves us for all that we are and does not expect perfection. He roots for us and mourns with us and waits for us to come to Him. And more importantly, He expects us to love each other. It does not matter that we do things differently or come from different situations or have different struggles or opinions. We have no right to judge. We are to love. Period.

This world can be a harsh, cold place. As members of His church, we have an obligation to build Zion as a protection from the world. In Doctrine and Covenants 38:27, the Lord said, “Be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine.”

The world wants to spread contention and build up the kingdom of the king of lies. It is becoming easier to see and harder to fight against. Take a moment, when you are frustrated, before you react, to recognize the forces that are at work.

“ For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another.”(3 Nephi 11:29)

The following is one of my favorite talks. Most of you have heard it. Please listen to it again. It is deeper than you may remember. Consider how it applies to you .

I appreciate each of you and the unique and beautiful women that you are. I really do. Please forgive me for my imperfections which are many and look for the good in one another. You have the potential to do so much good in this world. Never forget who you are.

https://abn.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2012/04/the-merciful-obtain-mercy?lang=eng&fbclid=IwAR2SUKdpx7gFDb6b_UZ87jz4HoELFyifvtYI5FpOiPR-JAhuEo1vPGsONBA

B250 week 13

This is the next to last week of this semester.  Hard to believe.  This class has been a bit frustrating.  I only understand a portion of the stuff we have covered.  It is cool that we have had so much opportunity to explore analytics and such and I will play with these things in the future.  I really thought woorank was interesting and gave specific things I can do to improve my website.  I will definitely visit it again.  I do not know how to do some of the things it suggests but after school I will have some extra time to try to figure some of these things out.  I do appreciate the things this class has introduced me to.

B 250 week 12

This week we learned more about optimizing our web sites and using social media effectively.  I have a hard time digesting and retaining a lot of this stuff at once.  I bookmarked some of the pages that looked particularly useful so that I can go back and use them later.

I have learned that original content is particularly helpful.  It is content not found elsewhere and any links to it will go back to my site.
I also need to add quick links to social media sites to make it super easy for users to share my site.
I also plan to come up with a survey - and more than one eventually - to find out what users most want to find on the site.

It has been a tough week because I have been pulled away from the computer and my school work too much - dealing with other people's problems.  I need to get more done on the site.

An interesting thing happened though - showing the importance of developing and not just letting things sit.  Last week I simply added an arrow pointing down so that users would scroll to find more information.  Since I did this, the conversion rate went from 2 to 32.  So, I got them to click.  Now I need to get them to stay.

B250 week 11

Wow - only a few weeks left in this semester.  I feel bad because my website is not very developed.  I spend so much time doing school work that I have little time for the site.

This week we talked about landing pages and web site optimization and stuff like that.  I need to go in and make sure keywords are used effectively and also add original content that is shareable.  I will need to go back over my notes and make sure I do all I can to make my site easy to use and find.

One thing - I am much more interested in optimization than I am in google aps.  This is very useful information. Optimizing means to make sure that users find what they are looking for and can maneuver easily. I will have lots of work on the website to do over the break. I also have people wanting me to do sewing projects for them and I just can't do that until this semester ends.  I think the summer break will be so busy that it will seem gone before it even begins.

B250 week 10

This week our goal was to activate an ad words campaign which I did 2 weeks ago.  Also, we are starting a project due in 2 weeks.  We have to change things in our ads and/or keywords and evaluate the changes in our results.  I have to admit that it is kind of fun to see things happen.  I am going to spend most of today working on that site.  I am starting to solidify - in my head - what I want to do.  Design-wise I just don't know.  I might talk to Renee because she is an artist and might have some helpful suggestions.

I have found this semester to be much more of a challenge than I ever expected college to be.  I always thought I was the smart one but -dang, this is hard.  Programming is kicking my butt.  I am taking less credits next semester but they are all programming classes.  I am more than a little afraid.

B250 week 9

We learned about Google Analytics this week.  We did not actually learn about it but rather learned how to apply it.  I am not sure about the cost because the wording was vague.

I linked my AdWords and Analytics.  Analytics is tracking my website.

I checked my quality scores on my keywords and "sewing" is still the only effective one.  I will develop the site more and see what happens.

Last week I worked a lot on the site.  I liked the way it looked and then something happened and all of the pages became copies of the same.  I found out that it was because of the "footing" setting.  I turned it off and now I have to start over.  I have now got the "about" stuff on the home page and the "contact" page looks good.  Everything else is a mess and the Blog doesn't work at all.  I don't know how to fix that.

Such fun.  I thought using a host with "drag and drop" would make things easier but it is a real pain.

250 week 8

This week I made a google ad.  That was cool.  I had to set my budget to 1 cent a day because my site is not ready to view and I don't want to throw money at it yet.  It says that I will not be billed until I spend $50 so that will means I get a bill in about 14 years.  HAHA

I am really having a hard time starting my site.  I know I am a capable writer but I am just afraid to make anything permanent.  I don't know why.  I am making myself crazy.  I have to force myself to do something this weekend.

Business 250 week 7 - Keywords

I understand the concept of keywords and their importance when trying to draw customers to your website.  I used to think it was all about being creative and finding a way to get your site to appear near the top of a search result.  I did not realize that you had to pay for this and it kind of makes me angry - not gonna lie.  I know it is progress and someone will find a way to monetize everything so I am not surprised - just ticked that now I am expected to pay for this.

My biggest issue with this is that they use the word "bid".  I am not 100% about this but it seems as if some really fast computer calculations are done every time a search is entered to decide who has the highest bid and who will appear at the top of every search result page.  So considering the fat that there are big businesses out there that can throw a lot of money at this ad stuff, how will my budget get me any results?  Am I throwing money away?

My daughter used to do a blog and she had a very unique name for her blog.  She would appear at the top of a search every time someone put in those words and even near the top if one or 2 of them were used.  My other daughter is an artist and uses a pseudonym when she posts art on any of her active accounts.  If you type in her Pseudonym tons of her images appear right on top because her name is unique.

The problem is that people have to be looking for them or they would not know the words to search for.  I can see the purpose of adwords because people don't look for unique names if they don't know to do so.  I just don't know if my money would be better used elsewhere because I can not afford to spend very much and my bids will always be too low.

B250 week 6

Thank goodness for an easy week in one class at least.  I have really been struggling lately.  Even though I am a junior in college, this is the first time I have taken what would be considered a "full load" in a semester.  I am not sure I will do it again.

This week we researched business organizations and tax and license laws.  I am a sole proprietor.  I don't know that I ever want to be big enough to ever be anything else.  My only motivation to ever be anything more would be to provide income opportunities for my children.  In that case the laws are unique.  A family business is not the same as a regular business. If this becomes a possibility, I will need to research this more and get an attorney to help me with it.

For now, I will start simple and see where it takes me.  I am doing this mostly for fun.  I love a project and an opportunity to put something productive out there into the www.
It is exciting to have my own space on the web.  I am not sure about the name but it is the first thing I typed in and it was available.  Now the hard part comes - building it up, making it useful and figuring out what to say.

B250 week 5

This week was pretty easy in this class. Its a good thing because one of my other classes had me in tears and I still have not figured it out.  I have been wondering if this whole going back to school thing was a mistake.
So this week we visited my old friend Paypal.  I made a donation button for my website.  This, of course, meant that I actually had to start the website.  It asked for a domain name and the first thing I entered worked.  So it has a name and I had no chance to rethink it.  I am not sure how I feel about it but I hope it was inspiration.
preservecreativity.com
That's it.  I am nervous now about what comes next.

 Earlier in the week, we were asked to find websites like ours to emulate.  Honestly, I did the assignment but I wasn't really happy with anything I found.  I am sure I can learn from other sites who have done things successfully but I want to do things differently - creatively.

It was interesting reading about other ideas from my classmates.

Oh, and, I got an "A" on the big spreadsheet. That was a relief because this semester has been such a struggle so far.  Its good to see I did something right.

B250 Week 4

My computer is still out of commission. The tech I spoke with from HP said the process would take7-9 days. Today makes 8 days and yesterday I got an email saying they should have it back to me by the 19th.  This is really frustrating because the computer is only 4 months old.

Luckily, I was able to complete the spreadsheet for choosing a product thanks to Google sheets.  It worked like a charm.  Thank you Brother Luke. 

Spreadsheets are pretty cool. Hopefully one day I will be good at using them effectively.  The ranking formula did not work for me but everything else went well this week.
I chose a web builder and host - webstarts.  I will be doing a creative blog. My biggest challenge will be to keep up with content.  I have a hard enough time getting school done every week.  I hope to find other people to help provide content.  I hope to make it a spot for creative types and for those who would like to learn new skills.

I am kind of excited but also nervous.  I am not really sure I can make it work.  This is my toughest class because I keep misunderstanding things.  On top of this I am learning html in one class, javascript in another and CSS in another. I feel like this is immersion therapy.  I hope I can actually learn this stuff.  It will be pretty cool if I can.  If not, I guess I chose the wrong path.

B250 week 3

This week we learned a lot about wholesale suppliers and I found it very interesting checking out all sorts of suppliers. My head is reeling with ideas.

Then we compared affiliate marketing with drop-shipping.  I was appalled by the high penalties for returns with drop-shipping and also felt like the whole process was too much of a hassle for something that I didn't have a real connection with. I like the affiliate model.  I think it will become part of my final plan. I believe I can add other things to that but it is an easy way to start.

This class scares me a little. I am not afraid to admit it. Making a final decision is pretty intimidating. It is good to have the push though.  I have had ideas spinning in my head for a long time but never put anything into action. 

I am still worried about last weeks spreadsheet. Especially since my hard drive crashed this week. My computer and the programs on it are out of commission for a week or so.  I only have Chris' computer to work on and it is kind of a piece of junk.  It is really slow and he had no word processing program on it.  I tried to open word but couldn't get it to work.  I had to download Open Office.  I hope my instructors can open my files.

I could have used Hope or Renee's computers but they both have Macs and I did not want to deal with that.  Plus they are both in school and need their machines.  Chris just finished a semester and is on break.

weekly blog for business class

This is a tough week.  I hope I have not gotten in over my head with this.  The funny thing is that I thought this class would be fun and programming would be tough.  This week programming was a breeze.

I am feeling pretty comfortable  using adwords so far but all the spreadsheets in my download folder are confusing me.  I spent more time on this class this week than on all my other classes combined and I am still not completely sure how to finish the yellow chart.

I am sooo glad I am not using a mac because my daughter is and she is having a lot of problems.  Her spreadsheets are not lining up properly at all.

So as to snowboards or chess, I think snowboards offer the best numbers - especially Burton snowboards as they have the highest number of impressions(17878.24) with low competition(0.22).

Justice for All

It is interesting to read about the Constitution. Indeed it was inspired, but it is not scripture. Dallin H Oaks said, ”Reverence for the United States Constitution is so great that sometimes individuals speak as if its every word and phrase had the same standing as scripture. Personally, I have never considered it necessary to defend every line of the Constitution as scriptural. For example, I find nothing scriptural in the compromise on slavery or the minimum age or years of citizenship for congressmen, senators, or the president. President J. Reuben Clark, who referred to the Constitution as “part of my religion,”  also said that it was not part of his belief or the doctrine of the Church that the Constitution was a “fully grown document.” “On the contrary,” he said, “We believe it must grow and develop to meet the changing needs of an advancing world.””
While the men who gathered to established the Constitution were good, God-fearing men, they were still 18th century men and their ideals were far different from ours.  Many of them were slave owners.  They considered women to be property as well, with no rights and they had very specific ideas about what Christianity was. 
I personally believe the constitution was inspired in its language even though those who wrote it did not realize what they were writing. In its language, it provided for more in the way of liberty than even the founding fathers intended. The Declaration of Independence states that All men are created equal. This has come to mean all mankind. Those who wrote it obviously meant – wealthy, white males. However, this statement along with the purposely vague language of the constitution made it possible for greater freedom for all of God's children. It took nearly 150 years for everyone to be considered equal under the law. Those who wrote the Constitution did not really intend for blacks, women and the underprivileged to be part of the voice of America but the language they used allowed for it. I believe that was because they were inspired to use that language. They spoke of liberty but left out their own prejudices.
The preamble reads: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. “
Words like, “people”, “Common” and “general” include all races and genders, and make it clear the intent of our constitution is to protect the liberties of all – not just the the ruling white males.
The Bill of Rights includes freedom of religion. It seems obvious that the main reason was to prevent the formation of a state-sanctioned religion. They most likely had ideas of what they thought a religion should be but once again, they did not clarify. So, when the gospel was restored, despite the fact that many people thought that talk of visions and latter day prophets and other things that challenged the notion of what Christianity was, were blasphemous, the constitution eventually protected our rights.
Wars have been fought, people have been tortured and persecuted and it has taken a long time to come to the understanding that we have today of what our Constitution means.
Despite the shortcomings of those who gathered to create this constitution, God established a nation where all of His children would be free to exercise their agency and worship according to the dictates of their own conscience.

Prayer

This week I read the book of Ether in the Book of Mormon.  I learned quite a bit about prayer from Ether.  In particular, the prayer of the brother of Jared when he asked the Lord to provide light for the barges impresses me.  First we learn that in order to receive help from the Lord, we must make some effort.  We can't just cry unto the Lord and expect Him to fix all of our problems.  Like the Brother of Jared, we must make a plan, work it out and then bring our plan to the Lord and ask for His help.  If it is a worthy plan and we have faith in His ability to help, He will.  Because of the faith of the brother of Jared, The Lord could not withhold blessings from him.  Isn't that great, to know that the Lord is bound by what He says and if we ask according to His will, in faith, He will answer our prayers.

The brother of Jared was obviously a prophet of great faith.  However in Ether 2:14 he was chastised for failure to pray.  I imagine he hadn't ceased to pray but his prayers had maybe become routine and lacking in depth.  I know my prayers often seem to be the same every day and in my mind that makes them insincere.  This is a struggle for me because I get really tired or otherwise occupied and prayer is not as big a priority as it should be.  This Jaredite prophet was obviously a man of great faith who had become lackadaisical in his communication with the Lord.  The Lord chastened him for 3 hours.  I think this was a long overdue conversation and not just a lecture from the Lord.  He wants us to take time to communicate with Him.

IN the Book of Mormon we also learn about Enos, who prayed all day and all night.  I have heard quite a few comments this semester about how God doesn't want to hear us go on and on and we can get our point across in a short amount of time because he already knows what we need.  With respect to these good people, I disagree.  I had a bishop, a man I have great respect for, who challenged us to pray for 30 minutes at least once a day.  It was an interesting experience.  The first 5 minutes are repeating the generic things we say every day.  Then I ran out of things to say.  Then after silent contemplation, I found the things I really needed to say.  I think it takes some time to just shut out the world and really get to that place where we are communicating.  Communication is a 2-way process.  Taking time allows us the opportunity to receive communication from Him as well.  Sometimes a thought or impression or a voice, vocal or in our mind, can come to us in moments of silence when we are focusing our energy on prayer.  Now, I don't pray like that all the time, but I do try to find time to get a little deeper when I commune with the Lord at least once a day.  I am blessed, find deeper understanding and guidance when I do really give time to prayer.  I should do this more than I do. 

Prayer is a blessing.  It is the opportunity to communicate with our Savior.  No one loves us more.  He wants to bless us and help us through our struggles.  Praying according to His will, in faith and with sincere effort can only bless our lives.

2/27/2016

After I wrote my last entry, I continued reading in 3 Nephi and went to the gathering Thursday night.  Turns out righteous judgement was the theme for the week. 

In chapter 18, Christ mentions that He is the light of the world.  Then He tells us that we are also expected to be a light unto the world.  We are to shine His light.  We are to do all the things that He has done...serve and love and forgive one another.  He teaches that those who profess to believe in Him but do not DO these things will be cast out.  Only Christ can make that judgement because only He knows their heart.

We cannot judge or cast anyone out of the church because we can't see what is inside of them, their intent, their heart, their potential.  God loves all of His children, even the ones that annoy us.  He wants all of them/us to return to Him and will give them every chance to turn it around and get on the right path.

So we need to do what we are supposed to do - love one another, serve one another, forgive one another and leave the rest to God.  If we forgive and love and help one another along, He will be more likely to forgive us.  If we judge one another harshly, we will be judged the same.

I don't know about you but as for me - I need a lot of leeway.  I am an imperfect being and I need lots of forgiveness.  I can't afford to look down my nose at anyone.  Plus, I would much rather be a part of saving souls than condemning them.

I imagine how amazing it was for these Nephites to have the opportunity to visit with the Savior.  I would love to be able to sit at His knee and feel of His love.  In the short period of time that He was with them, he gave them the most important instruction of all.  It is the same thing He always taught by word and by example.  It is simple.  It is love.  He loves us.  We are to love one another.  And despite what romance novels and telenovelas and most of the world might tell you - love is not a feeling.  It is an action.  We must get up and serve.  We must give one another the benefit of the doubt.  We must forgive and move forward and share His light with the world.

There are lots of things that we are supposed to do - lots of commandments.  If we follow all of them but fail to serve and love our fellow man, we are lost.  The first and greatest commandment is to love God.  The second is to love one another.  It is by the second that we follow the first.  Everything else falls under these two.

Read the words of the Savior to the Nephites again.  Imagine seeing and hearing Him speak.  What does His message mean for you?  What does He want you to do?

Face the Light and Keep the Shadows Behind You

I have been thinking about light again.  It is one of my favorite symbols.  I read last week about the darkness that fell upon the Nephites when Christ died.   There were terrible storms, earthquakes and devastation and then complete and total darkness and silence for 3 days.  The darkness was so complete that they could not see a hand in front of their face.  I imagine the air was full of dust from the leveled cities and not even the starts were visible.  They had no way of creating light or even knowing where they were because the very face of the land had changed.  Imagine that.  What would life be like without light of any kind.  Imagine being blind in a unfamiliar place and you can't call for help because your neighbor is in the same situation. 

Obviously, there is symbolism here.  Christ is the light of the world.  When He died, so did the light. 

Helen Keller said something about facing the light and the shadows will be behind you.  I think we all have shadows - dark things that make life difficult.  I can't imagine life without them.  Personally, I sometimes think my life is a punishment for something.  Not to be a downer but other than a few moments of ignorant bliss, it has just never been easy or fun.  I think it was president Hinckley who said that if we expect life to be fun, we are going to be disappointed.  How true that is. 

The only reason I keep going is because of the light of Christ.  I believe in Him.  I know He loves me and it is the string that I hold onto that keeps pulling me along.  Sometimes I feel like the shadows are about to mow me down but I hold on.

I have been working on building my own Christ-like attributes and lately I think I may have reached a new level of understanding.  Its not really new but has sunk in a little deeper I guess.  Recently I was asked what I thought about someone who had given a talk.  This person has in the past said some hurtful things and I think I was expected to gossip a bit but I said that I thought they were doing the best they could to be the best person they could be.  I believe that and I believe that most of us are just like that - doing the best we can.  You don't know about my personal misery and I don't know about yours because mostly, we just try to do the best we can and hold our heads up and keep moving forward. 

Sometimes its all I can do to stand still and not fall down.  The mountain of muck that I have to deal with is too big to go over or around.  I can only plod through it one step at a time, while it seems to keep getting bigger.  At least that is how I feel right now.  Most of the time I face forward and try keep the shadows behind me but I get turned around sometimes and I am not doing great today. 

My point is that we all have our personal muck and I know what it's like to suffer, so I am not going to judge you by what I see on the surface when I know little or nothing about what you struggle with underneath.  I believe you are doing your best to be the person you want to be.  Please do the same for me.  We need to love each other and give each other the benefit of the doubt.  That is a big deal to me - benefit of the doubt.  It means that even when I seem like I am a real mess - you trust that I am a good person and I didn't mean to be hurtful or careless or bad in any way.  I am just flawed and doing my best. 

Keep plodding along.  I am so grateful for the Savior and that light that he brings to my otherwise dark world.

It may not seem like it but I think I just gave myself a pep talk.  That and the talk by Elder Holland that was shared on Facebook this morning may just get me through the day.  If not for Elder Holland this would have been a lot more negative.  I should just listen to him every morning. 

The Pride Cycle

Feb 13, 2016

This past week in school we studied Helaman 10-15  Some people commented that they didn't especially like Helaman because it is so dark.  Personally, I like it because we aare really getting into the meat of it - miraculous stories and prophetic teachings.

Something else that is prevalant in Helaman is the pride cycle.  If that is not something that sounds familiar to you, let me elaborate.  The pride cycle goes like this:  People have trials.  They turn to God out of desparation.  They pray and repent and beg for His help.  God helps and blesses those who turn to Him.  God's blessings become a source of pride and because they are so proud of all they have, they turn from God.  They think they don't need Him anymore because they are doing so well "on their own".

This happens repeatedly in the scriptures.  It also happens in our world today.  Look around.  We are a prosperous people and our society seems to think there is no need for God.  Personally, I often forget to turn to my Savior and stumble through trying to fix things myself when I am faced with a problem.  I doubt I am the only one.

At our school gathering this week, someone mentioned a humility cycle.   I have been thinking about that, trying to pin down exactly how that would work.

Looking at the pride cycle, the break down occurs when The Lord sends His blessings and people become prideful.  They forget where their blessings come from.  So, to reverse that, we need to be humble and recognize where those blessings come from.  Humility, gratitude and then service are the keys to turning the cycle around.

So a humility cycle would work like this:  We face trials.  We turn to God.  He blesses us.  We are grateful.  We are humble.  We recognize that the good things in our lives are blessings.  We look for ways to bless others.  Inevitably new trials will come and when they do we continue in faith, knowing that God will provide a way for us to overcome.  As we continue to be humble, our faith increases.

For a little more insight, look to Helaman 3:35
"Nevertheless they did pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, ye, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God."

This group of people maintained their closeness to God even while the rest of the Nephites were traveling along the pride cycle because they were humble, they prayed, they relied on faith in Christ, and yielded their hearts (and wills) to God.

We must do the same to avoid being caught up in the dangers of pride.  We must recognize that our blessing come from God, be grateful, be humble, serve others, pray and yield our hearts and wills to God.

Every Sunday as we partake of the Sacrament, we have the opportunity to evaluate ourselves.  Are we proud of ourselves, our wealth, status, education, accomplishments, and so forth or are we aware of how worthless we would be without our Savior?

********************************************************************************
I am sorry that this is rushed and a bit disorganized.  The computer is doing weird things and I don't have the time or energy to go back and edit right now.
 8888888888888888888888888888888888888888888

********************************************************************